Copyright is concerned with protecting work, that is the expression of thoughts and human intellect. Copyright and other related subjects are mainly arranged within 5846 numbered Copyright Act in Turkey.

Work is defined in the concerned Act as: ‘any kind of intellectual and artistic product bearing the characteristics of its owner and which is considered a work of science and literature, music, fine arts or cinema.’

The domain of copyright in Turkey is the protection of literary, musical, artistic and cinematographic works which in turn defined in article 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the concerned Act. Taking these explanations into account, it could be stated that there are four main work categories that were arranged in accordance with numerus clausus principle. Although the main work categories are restricted, sub-types of these work categories are not.    

These works shall include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as books, pamplets and other writings, lectures, dramatic or dramatico-musical works, choreographic works, musical compositions with or without words, works expressed in language and writing in any way and computer programs expressed in any form and their preliminary designs, provided that these lead to a program in the next stage; cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography, works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, lithography, photographic works, to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography, works of applied art, illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science, etc.